﻿260
AN GAODHAL.
TO OUR OLD SUBSCRIBERS.
Hereafter the GAEL will be a Dollar a year to
New subscribers: to Old subscribers it will be Six¬
ty cents, as heretofore. Our reason for making
this distinction is obvious: old subscribers who
may be anxious to preserve the numbers for the
purpose of getting them bound and leaving them
as an heirloom in their families might not be pleas¬
ed at the advanced price, and to avoid any seem¬
ing imposition the price will be to them the same
as when they became subscribers. We desire all
our old friends who sent us subscribers to partic¬
ularly note this announcement.
From experience we have learned that to make
the Gael an aggressive medium for propagating
the language its income must increase. To make
the movement for the cultivation of the Irish lan¬
guage general, fresh ground must be constantly
broken and the doing this is attended by expense.
A passive action in regard to any movement would
lead to inanition. This is true of the Irish Lan¬
guage as well as all others.
Now, to make it aggressive, it must be agitated
in the public press and out of it. If possible,
Gaelic literature should be put into the hands of
every Irishman or woman. Some my fall on on
barren rock, but, if thrown broadcast, some will
alight on productive soil also. Persons through
the states and Canada may be surprised at receiv¬
ing gratuitous copies of the Gael from time to
time. Well, since the first issue we have sent it
as far as the issues went, to wherever we could find
an Irish name to send it to. We take up the pub¬
lic press and wherever we see an Irish name in
connection with any Irish patriotic movement we
send it a copy. As already remarked this is at¬
tended with some expense, and it is to meet it and
to be able to supply larger number of such names
that we have increased the price to the figure an¬
nounced in the initial number. The advance is
of small consequence to the individual subscriber,
not a cent a week; it would be of much import¬
ance to the Gael,
We believe there is not an Irishman or woman
living today, who, if he or she fully realized the
very important social principle underlying the
movement for the preservation and cultivation
the National language, would begrudge to pay one
dollar a year to promote it,
Pride is a sentiment ordinarily inherent in man
and no man is an evemplary member of society who
does not possess it. This pride — laudable in it
self — must be distinguished from vanity. Pride
and vanity are often unthinkingly assumed to be
one and the same thing. They are, by no means
parallel — pride makes us esteem ourselves; vanity
causes us to desire the esteem of others. A man
with self-esteem will regulate his conduct so so
to avoid giving offence to others — he is too proud
to be guilty of a wrong act, whereas the vain man
will try to assume a polished exterior, with a view
of courting observation, and be at the same time
interior corrupt:
It is the proud Irishman or woman who desires
to preserve his or her national language, because
he or she does not wish to be depending on the
language of others. To do so would be a tacit ac¬
knowledgement of an inferiority in his other social
standing. Few, very few, would like to acknow¬
edge to be socially inferior to their neighbors.
Yet every Irishman and woman who neglects to
cultivate the language of his or her country tacitly
acknowledges the superiority of those whose lan¬
guage he or she adopts. It is not usual to prefer
an inferior to a superior article, and no one would
do it except under two conditions, — First, durance
or compulsion, second, ignorance of the resulting
value. Now, those Irishmen who ridicule the idea
of cultivating the language of their country must
do so from one or other of those two causes — They
are not now physically compelled, but they cer¬
tainly are mentally so; and this continuous men¬
tal imprisonment has destroyed their discerning
or discriminating faculties.
How different with other nationalities. We see
the Magyars, a handful of people asserting their so¬
cial rights. Meet two Germans in the street or in
a store and you will hear them chatter in their na¬
tive language. Meet two Frenchmen and it is the
same — Meet two of any nation but the Irish! and it
is the same. Yet, insinuate that Doctor P. J. O'¬
Brien is not an honorable, independent, educated
Irishman and he will possibly knock you down.
So also with Counsellor O'Connor, Judge O'Neill,
&c. &c. though they are daily furnishing material
for their own ridicule to the surrounding nations,
including the nation to which they pay mental o¬
beisance. How many lawyers, Irish born, plead¬
ing at the bar and quoting the Breton Laws through
the Latin or the English and who do not know a
word of the language in which they were codified;
and that language the language of their ancestry,
the language of their country!
English educated Irish gentlemen should ascer¬
tain what such foreigners as Professor Roehrig of
Cornell University think of their patriotism! The
educated of Continental Europe, excepting the I¬
rish alone, are making exertions to preserve an¬
cient Celtic literature for philological purposes.
Should not even this shame Irishmen, whose lan¬
guage it should naturally be, into doing something
in its regard?
The Gael will continue to strike hard at its Eng¬
lish educated countrymen who ignore the Nation¬
al Language. We say "English educated" because
we deny that any so called Irishman is educated,
who is ignorant of his native language — a living
language, used by the native princes and aristoc¬
racy of his country, two centuries ago, as demon¬
strated by a reference to the Prince O'Rourke, in
another page, and written, read, and spoken by a
